2 Answers
2

A text watermark will be WordArt. Since you're seeing picture formatting tools, you must have a picture watermark. The Washout setting is just a specific brightness setting; you can adjust the brightness to be more or less using the menu under brightness in the Adjust group on the contextual Picture Tools | Format tab. If you want something between those settings, right-click on the graphic, choose Format Picture, and use the slider or spin box to select a specific percentage.

How do you select the image used in the custom watermark and get the Picture Tools contextual tabs to appear? I'm interested in this question too because it doesn't seem like I can get much control over the watermark.
–
DaneJan 28 '13 at 18:54

I think the question was related to a Picture Watermark, not a "Word Art" one. When you go to Page Layout>Watermark>Custom Watermark>Picture watermark>Select picture (do it). Set your scale (normally 100%) and make sure washout is UNCLICKED. I hope that's what the problem was That's what made mine looked faded. Thanks